T-duality simplifies bulk-boundary correspondence (Q2630747)

The paper is devoted to study the bulk-boundary correspondence for the three phenomena: the integer quantum Hall effect (IQHE), the Chern insulator, and the time-reversal invariant topological insulators. The bulk-boundary correspondence describes a correlation between certain topological features of the bulk description and those of boundary phenomena. The bulk-boundary correspondence is formulated as a topological boundary map associated to an extension of bulk algebra observables by boundary algebras. It is assumed that the bulk \(C^*\)-algebra \(\Xi\) arises as a crossed product of the codimension-1 boundary algebra \(\mathcal{J}\) by \(\mathbb{Z}\) and relates them through the associated Toeplitz extension. The Fermi projection for a bulk Hamiltonian defines an element of \(K_0(\Xi)\), which has a homomorphic image in \(K_1(\Xi)\) under the boundary map in \(K\)-theory. It is shown that the bulk-boundary homomorphism becomes trivialized under T-duality, introduced before as a tool to study topological insulators. A relatively complicated bulk-boundary map becomes a trivial map when viewed on the T-dual side. The authors develop non-commutative twisted and real versions of T-duality, and demonstrate the principle for (i) the integer quantum Hall effect, (ii) the Chern insulator, and (iii) the time-reversal invariant topological insulators. In the case of IQHE, the Riemannian metric is used for writing the Hamiltonian of an electron in an electromagnetic field with vector potential. In a real material, this Hamiltonian is modified by the addition of a real-valued potential. This Hamiltonian commutes with magnetic translations. In the case of the Chern insulator instead of the magnetic translational symmetry, the Hamiltonian has ordinary \(\mathbb{Z}^2\) translation invariance and ordinary Bloch-Floquet theory suffices for its analysis. The basic model of a Chern insulator is a two-band Hamiltonian in 2D. A family of models realizes a valence band with Chern numbers \(0, \pm1, \pm2\). For the time-reversal invariant (or T-invariant), the Hamiltonian is formulated on the Brillouin torus, and it includes an anti-unitary anti-involutary time-reversal operation \(T\) on the Bloch bundle, satisfying the commutation relation for the Bloch Hamiltonians. In the case (iii), real \(K\) \(R\)-theory or quaternionic \(K\) \(Q\)-theory groups are required, but T-duality simplifies the mathematical description by translating them to ordinary real \(K\) \(Q\)-theory groups. The Fu-Kane-Mele (FKM) invariant then is understood as the T-dual to the classical Stiefel-Whitney classes. These results illustrate the potential utility of T-duality in the field of topological insulators.